Europe’s Digital Agenda – Week Three

Welcome to this third edition of Europe’s Digital Agenda weekly summary. In this space we will try to uncover and detail last week’s European digital developments, highlighting the most relevant news as well as EU institutions’ forthcoming activities, as well as highlighting digital movers and shakers.

Last week, we discussed key developments around 5G and cybersecurity across the member states, and the progress in the EU-Japan agreement on personal data protection. We also discussed a £1m tender to enhance the potential of digital hubs and accelerators across Europe.

This week, we have an extremely busy European Digital Agenda that includes developments in the controversial EU Copyright Directive as well as key developments around Cybersecurity with a hack on an Italian agency, Brexit and the Pentagon’s commitment to invest $2bn in AI, which necessarily shines a light on Europe’s own AI journey.

In this edition we will also present for the first time a look at The Week Ahead where we will help you decode the future by outlining the next week’s most relevant digital meetings and events.

Europe at a Glance

The map above shows last week’s most relevant digital news.

European Parliament passes a resolution to ban ‘killer robots’ on battlefield.

The European Parliament has passed a resolution calling for an international ban on so-called “killer robots”.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) said that some countries were reportedly developing lethal autonomous weapon systems, or “killer robots”, ranging from “missiles capable of selective targeting” to “learning machines with cognitive skills to decide whom, when and where to fight”. The Parliament wants to prevent the development of this kind of weapon, advocating for an international ban on lethal autonomous weapon systems.

While the resolution was backed by a large majority, some MEPs were concerned legislation could limit scientific progress of artificial intelligence (AI).

Last month, talks at the United Nations failed to reach consensus on this issue, with a number of countries saying the benefits of autonomous weapons should be explored.

The European Commission has put forward a proposal on the creation of a Network of Cybersecurity Competence Centres, including a new European Cybersecurity Industrial, Technology and Research Competence Centre to invest in “stronger and pioneering cybersecurity capacity in the European Union”.

The mission of the network is to help the EU to create an inter-connected, Europe-wide cybersecurity industrial and research ecosystem. It should encourage better cooperation between relevant stakeholders to make the best use of existing cybersecurity resources and expertise spread across member states.

Udo Helmbrecht, executive director of European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA), said, “The new proposal for the establishment of a European Cybersecurity Competence Network and Centre is the next big step to boost the cyber capacity and competitiveness of the European cyber security sector. I believe these initiatives along with the adoption of the proposed Cybersecurity Act will place Europe as a forerunner in the world to lead and leverage the opportunities that a strong European cyberspace can deliver.”

Commission proposes new rules to get terrorist content off the web.

In last week’s State of the Union Address 2018, the European Commission’s president Jean-Claude Juncker proposed a new piece of regulation to get terrorist content off the web within one hour. According to this proposal, every platform that wants to provide services in the EU will be subject to “clear rules to prevent their services from being misused to disseminate terrorist content”.

Commissioner for the Security Union, Julian King said, “You wouldn’t get away with handing out fliers inciting terrorism on the streets of our cities – and it shouldn’t be possible to do it on the internet, either. While we have made progress on removing terrorist content online through voluntary efforts, it has not been enough. We need to prevent it from being uploaded and, where it does appear, ensure it is taken down as quickly as possible – before it can do serious damage.”

The new rules are being presented one week ahead of the Ministerial Informal Meeting in Salzburg where EU Leaders are expected to discuss security.

European Parliament backs controversial Copyright Directive.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) last week adopted amendments to the controversial EU Copyright Directive following on from their previous rejection of the proposed regulation, adding safeguards to protect small firms and freedom of expression.

The new regulation’s key goals are protecting press publications, reducing the “value gap” between the profits made by Internet platforms and content creators, encouraging “collaboration” between these two groups, and creating copyright exceptions for text and data mining.

The European Parliament’s position strengthens the Commission’s proposed plans to make online platforms legally liable for copyright infringements. This would also apply to snippets of news, where only a portion of a news publisher’s text is displayed. In practice, this liability would require these involved parties to pay the rights holders for copyrighted material that they make available on their platforms.

The Pentagon makes $2bn investment in AI.

The Pentagon’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced a multi-year investment of more than $2bn (£1.5bn) in its “AI Next” artificial intelligence (AI) campaign.

DARPA is an agency of the United States Department of Defence responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. It comprises approximately 220 government employees who oversee about 250 research and development programmes.

DARPA said that under its ‘AI Next’ campaign, key areas to be explored will include “automating critical DoD business processes, such as security clearance vetting in a week or accrediting software systems in one day for operational deployment; improving the robustness and reliability of AI systems; enhancing the security and resiliency of machine learning and AI technologies; reducing power, data, and performance inefficiencies; and pioneering the next generation of AI algorithms and applications, such as ‘explainability’ and ‘commonsense reasoning’.

DARPA director, Dr. Steven Walker, said, “With AI Next, we are making multiple research investments aimed at transforming computers from specialised tools to partners in problem-solving. Today, machines lack contextual reasoning capabilities, and their training must cover every eventuality, which is not only costly, but ultimately impossible. We want to explore how machines can acquire human-like communication and reasoning capabilities, with the ability to recognise new situations and environments and adapt to them.”

The US commitment of $2bn compares with EU targets 20bn euros investment in AI by 2020. In 2016 European private investments in AI totalled around 3bn euros, compared to Asia’s almost 10bn euros and America’s 18bn euros.

Cyber attack on Italian National Institute for Social Assistance threatens users’ personal data

The portal of the Italian National Institute for Social Assistance (INAS), has been hacked, potentially putting the personal data of its users at risk.

The authority said the data stolen includes users’ data such as email address, password and, where indicated, telephone number and profession. The organisation reiterated that the data relating to its current procedures and activities carried out in its offices were not stored on the portal, and so was not subject to the data breach.

United Smart Cities and Deutsche Telekom sign global partnership.

United Smart Cities and Deutsche Telekom have announced a collaboration to join forces in supporting cities to become “smarter and more sustainable”.

The United Smart Cities program is a global initiative established and coordinated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in cooperation with the Organization for International Economic Relations .

The partnership aims to address key issues cities face today by providing projects and solutions in cooperation with cities across the globe. These include smart street lighting, air quality monitoring or smart parking.

Austria and Greece sign an e-Health declaration on linking genomic databases across borders.

Austria and Greece have become the 15th and 16th countries to sign the European e-Health declaration on linking genomic databases across borders.

The declaration is an agreement of cooperation between the countries that are investing in providing secure and authorised cross-border access to national and regional banks of genetic and other health data, in accordance with all EU data protection rules.

The declaration was originally launched on April 10 during the Digital Day and has been since then signed by Greece, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

The Brexit Corner

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said it is “realistic” to have a Brexit deal within the next six to eight weeks. Speaking at a conference in Slovenia, the EU negotiator said, “I think that if we are realistic, we are able to reach an agreement on the first stage of this negotiation within six or eight weeks”. Barnier said that both parties were “not far from agreement”, with 80% to 85% of issues already reached. But he added, “There are many issues which are not yet solved. We have to solve this issue of Ireland and some others in the next six to eight weeks.”

Barnier will tomorrow (September 18) brief the European Council on the Brexit talks with the UK. At the meeting, European ministers will discuss the state of play of the negotiations, concerning both the completion of the work on withdrawal issues and the discussions on the framework for future relations with the UK.

The European Council said in a statement, “Some parts of the draft withdrawal agreement have already been agreed in principle by the UK and the EU negotiators, although nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”

It said, “There are still parts of the withdrawal agreement that require further negotiation. One of them is the issue of how to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Other outstanding issues include the overall governance and dispute settlement of the withdrawal agreement, the protection of data and geographical indications.”

“An agreement on a future relationship can only be negotiated and concluded once the UK has become a third country. However, an overall understanding on the framework for the future relationship will be set out in a political declaration accompanying and referred to in the withdrawal agreement”, it added.

The next meeting of the European Council (Article 50) will be held on October 18.

The day after the meeting (September 19), Theresa May heads to Salzburg for a crucial EU summit, with hopes rising that a deal might be on the horizon.

However, the fate of May’s Brexit plan is still in doubt as it is unclear whether she could command the 320 votes she needs in the House of Commons, the lower house of the British parliament, to approve a deal.

As the country now faces a choice between this Brexit deal or a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, London mayor Sadiq Khan said voters should be given another referendum.

The Times also reported this week that the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, is now working on a new protocol text outlining how to use technology to minimise checks on the Irish border.

On the Labour side, with its annual conference in Liverpool less than a week away, the pressure is mounting on Jeremy Corbyn to change his position and back a second referendum if parliament votes down the final deal.

A delegation from the European Parliament Education and Culture Committee will travel to San Francisco to meet representatives from the tech industry (Google, Facebook, Netflix and Apple), academia and civil society.

The MP Owen Paterson will speak at a Heritage Foundation event on Brexit.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, for the third inter-Korean summit of the year.

The European Week of Regions and Cities is an annual four-day event during which cities and regions showcase their capacity to create growth and jobs, implement European Union cohesion policy, and prove the importance of the local and regional level for good European governance. During the third day of the event (October 10), the ISAÂ² Programme, boosting digital public administrations in Europeworkshop is expected to take place. The workshop aims to address the main eGovernment and interoperability issues and produce guidelines and training for the digitalisation of public administrations at local and regional level as well as e-tools for networking and boosting administrative capacity for EU funds management.

4th e-Health Security Conference (Rotterdam, 14 November)

The European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) is organising the 4th eHealth Security workshop in cooperation with the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, on November 14.

The event will focus on the aspects related to the implementation of EU Directives for the Healthcare sector across member states, and will highlight practices regarding the identification of operators of essential services, the collection of baseline security measures and incident notification.

The workshop will also include sessions dedicated to medical devices as well as to emerging technologies in eHealth security like Blockchain.

The thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will be hosted by the Government of France at the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris from 12 to 14 November 2018. The IGF is a forum organised by the United Nations for multi-stakeholder dialogue on public policy issues related to key elements of Internet governance issues, such as the Internet’s sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development.

I hope you find the information useful. If you have any other topics that you’d like to see us cover, please drop me a line to matteo.natalucci@globaldata.com